Little Things

It's the little things I tell you...

I'm trying to get used to the new town but it's not pleasant. This is apparently allergy and poor air quality capital and my allergies have been KILLER the past two weeks. Today I sat at my desk and was so dizzy that I almost fell off my chair.

Finding a good walk in clinic has been difficult.

Friends who send you packages are so awesome. Jen sent me a lovely little package with class kits in it from her teachings with Pam and I can't wait to make up the cool little things.

The rain in this city is incredible. It pours like a torrential downpour and then is sunny five minutes later.

I've gotten back into the habit of sitting down with a good book. First on the list is Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Getting organized is the bomb.

Getting the gym, however, is not.

Tunes on the iPod is a fantastic way to spend time.

Reruns suck this year.

It feels weird not having a summer job.

I'm glad I'm not working at Costco this year though, as much as I miss my friends, knowing that this time last year I was working 75 hour weeks makes me grateful for the well paying job I have now.

I can't stop thinking about a friend of mine from high school that I've lost touch with.

New shoes make anyone happy.

A picture is worth a thousand words

So the picture below is of us scrapbooking on Saturday:








Oh right, I FORGOT MY FREAKING CAMERA ON THE KITCHEN TABLE WHEN WE LEFT.

You know, you would think I would have this down by now. Scrapbook supplies, water, diet coke, snacks, CAMERA, other things. Sigh. What can I say, I'm completely organized when it comes to SOME stuff, yet horribly organized when it comes to the rest of it.

The best part though, was that I asked my brother in law to swing by with it and bring the girls since the lady across from me was my niece's former pre-school teacher. He ended up forgetting it as well.

Oh well. I managed to get ten layouts almost completely done. I have to do a few things to them. Like add paint to a couple of chipboard letters and come up with an interesting way of journaling on a few others. My sister says "you leave no space for journaling" and I say "the pictures speak for themselves" and my sister says "not in 300 years when the books get handed down" and I say "what the hell have you been snacking on at the canteen...300 years...sheesh". Clearly we have a good time together.

Pictures of layouts to come. I have to say, this has been some of my best work. (Hint hint to Jen and Pam.........)

This seemed like a good idea--In THEORY

Today I decided to test out several theories:

1. The "if I wear my retainer during the day I won't eat so much" theory. So far, not working out as well as I thought it would. I had a Tim Horton's chocolate chip muffin and tea at 7 am at work. Then I consumed my Optimum cereal at 10. Then I ate several handfuls of the Lay's low fat Tortilla chips. Then I had my regular SmartOnes meal at 1:30. Then I dipped into the chips again. Then I stopped for a kit kat bar on the highway with a non-sugarless Iced Tea. Now I'm going to have pizza at home. Not really working with the whole "stop eating while wearing retainer".

2. The "if I don't blow dry my hair I'll be able to heal this scalp issue I've been having since I started seeing that hair dresser" theory. Three days, and so far it seems to be working. I think it's just that my scalp was so severely dried out with the products that she used, it's starting to bounce back. Now on to the "if I really try hard enough, I'll be able to find someone who knows how to cut my hair properly" theory.

3. The "if I take County Road 42 and avoid the 20 km of highway construction I'll get home faster" theory. Ya, that one was so far out of the water it wasn't funny. Who knew they'd have construction ON County Road 42 with slow farmer trucks and school buses stopping periodically to get in my way.

4. The "if I track my projects in the Journal folder in Outlook I'll be able to see how long it takes me to do shit at work" theory. Don't even get me started. I'm so not into the whole IT thing I can't even get my passwords correct. Ask me how many times I've been locked out of my own computer this week. Sigh...

Essential Tuesday: AKA Jen is shirking her duties

It's been, oh, several weeks since we've received an essential Tuesday post from Miss JenniD. And yet, I feel the urge to take over her job. Well, it won't be half as good as her essential Tuesday. But hey, who cares???

Essential Tuesday.
1. Meijer. Where else can you get good easy cheap Weight Watchers meals?
2. Joanns. Gotta love a place you can get a crop case for almost half what you pay in Canada.
3. Cheap gas at the border. Yes, you worry about those Mexicans down south Mr. Bush. As long as I can fill up for about $10 less than what I pay in Canada.
4. Good photo paper. That's right, the right kind of photo paper makes it all better.
5. Fuddruckers. Mmmmm. Fudddddddruuuuuckkkkerrrrssss.
6. Good friends. AKA A bitchy coworker who knows just what to say to bring out the evil in you.
7. Cotton. Is there anything better than cotton on a hot day?
8. That warm car feeling. Especially after walking out of an office that feels like it's 68 F.

That's about all I can think of right now. Maybe I could say Canadian television on demand. Because CTV has started putting Canadian Idol online. Which I am seriously missing this summer. Being in the United States of Spamerica here we get free tv. With a good set of bunny ears. But that also means no canadian content. Which sucks, because if you think American Idol is a suckfest, you should watch Ben Mulroney for a few hours. And it's so bad it's GOOD. Now that it's on demand, I can watch it on my computer and not miss a beat!

Planning, Researching, Doing

I'm a big planner. And when it comes to looking for things, I could do it for hours. Well, researching things that is, actually looking for something I lost is another story. Which we won't get in to. For the good of mankind.

I'm going to this big all day crop next weekend with my sister. It's Creative Memories (SUCKS) but we're allowed to crop all we want. It's a sort of love hate thing. I love going and being able to spread out and do my own thing, but I hate how some of the women at these crops look down their nose at me and the way I scrapbook. Uh hi, I like to scrapbook outside the box of circles, squares and plain coloured paper. Thanks.

Needless to say, packing up everything I might need proves to be quite difficult. While I don't have as much stuff as say...SOME people I know, I do have quite a bit of crap to put together. And the sad part is, I almost always end up forgetting something to bring with me. Which is why I prefer to crop at home.

But, I won't let that get me down. The last two weeks, when I've had time, I've gone through my little proof sheets that I printed out and figured out which pictures I want to use in my EUROPE 2006 album. I've even sketched out the pages I want to do. Some people might think that's awesome, but really, most of my pages have been scraplifted. Which is code for COPYING. And while Jen might say that that's ok, (Ali Edwards: It is OK) I still feel a little bit of embarassment that I had to steal someone else's idea. But then, Becky Higgins gets big bucks for her sketches books, so I'll shut it.

Anyways, today is the day I actually print the pictures and figure out what I want to use on the pages. It's put me in a really creative mood and I've been coming up with ideas for other books and things I want to do. I'm going to finish the albums I started for my nieces months ago. And probably do up a little wedding album for my aunt of my cousins wedding from last fall. And maybe even do a little housewarming gift for someone else.

It helps to take my mind off of other things. And maybe it might also help me get back into my creative mood and forget all the stuff that has been getting me down the last few weeks.